St. Tammany Parish school district employees will get a holiday bonus, courtesy of the state Legislature. The School Board's Business Affairs and Administrative Committee on Thursday night voted to approve school Superintendent Trey Folse's plan for distributing an additional $4.9 million the state sent the district this year.

Folse said the only stipulation for that money, which came through House Bill 1, approved by the Legislature last spring, was that half of it had to be distributed among "certificated classroom teachers.''

Those 2,546 teachers will each receive a one-time stipend of $774 each, Folse said.

Folse asked the board to sign off on a plan to also give stipends of $774 to 539 employees who hold teaching certificates but who are not in the classroom -- including principals and assistant principals -- and $662 stipends to 2,111 other employees, ranging from bus drivers to maintenance personnel.

Folse said he and other administrators had come up with the distribution plan after exploring several other options. "We just feel that this is the best way,'' he told the committee.

Folse said the one-time stipends will not cost the district anything because they come from extra money sent by the state for the purpose of boosting employee pay.

The committee approved Folse's recommendation without discussion. The measure will now go before the School Board. Because the committee is comprised of the entire board, it's likely the board will formally adopt the plan at its regular meeting next week.

If formally adopted by the School Board, the stipends would be paid to employees in a single check Nov. 22.

The money for the stipends was part of an additional $10 million in state revenues the district received, according to the 2013-14 general fund budget. The district's general fund budget for the current fiscal year is $383.4 million.

The budget projects salaries of $218 million -- almost 57 percent of the general fund.